The present invention relates generally to a device for cooling and insulating from change the temperature of the contents of a bottle, and in the preferred embodiment, a two-liter soft drink bottle. The present invention relates more particularly to a device that is designed to receive a two-liter bottle and insulate its contents from temperature change because of the differences between the temperature of the contents of the bottle and the outside temperature, as well as cool the contents of the bottle when desired. In addition, the device of the present invention is designed to be filled with liquid independent of a soft drink bottle and to maintain and cool the temperature of the liquid within the container even though the outside temperature may be greater than the desired temperature of the contents of the container.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that insulated containers are readily available in the market place, beginning with the production of the original thermos bottles and improvements on that concept that have been developed over the years. The so-called "thermos" bottles is an insulated container which will maintain the temperature of either hot or cold liquid, soups, and the like that are stored in the container.
In addition to the traditional "thermos" bottles that are available in the market place, insulating containers are well known from the simplest devices such as the well known foam cup into which are inserted beer and soft drink cans to insulate the hand of the holder from the cold of the beer can or soft drink and to insulate the contents of the beer can or soft drink container against increases in temperature because of the surrounding heat. More sophisticated devices include containers with cavity walls including freeze gel compounds that can be frozen and are used to maintain the temperature of the container inserted within the insulating device.
While the devices known in the prior art have proven to be useful, the prior art devices are lacking in several respects. More specifically, the prior art devices fail to provide a structure for adequately maintaining the cool temperature of a soft drink container and which will even reduce the temperature of the contents of a soft drink container on a hot day, which allow for ready removal of the soft drink container from the structure and its conversion to a container for liquids, such as ice tea, kool-aid, lemonade and the like which are not generally available in bottled containers as are soft drinks. Ice tea, kool-aid and the like are generally mixed and placed in a container for transportation to be drank at a remote location. The present invention provides a convertible structure which can be used for both liquids that have their own container and for liquids which are mixed separately without their separate container. The present invention further facilitates the retention of the caps associated with a closed container and provide the means to maintain the cleanliness of the closed container. Such a device is presently lacking in the prior art.